And guess what? If you leave a comment on this post between now and
December 16th, you’ll be entered in a giveaway for a chance to win
any of Kay’s fantastic backlist titles. How awesome is that?

Welcome, Kay!

Thank you for having me! That’s
the most awesome introduction ever–thank you!

You write both contemporary paranormal and historical fantasy. Do you
find one genre easier than the other? Do you feel a stronger connection with
characters from either genre?

I would have answered this
question differently a few days ago.
However, this week I’ve been roaming the forests and castles of
thirteenth-century England and getting totally medieval on a couple of gorgeous
blokes’ arses. I’ve reminded myself how much I love writing historical fantasy.

In some senses, contemporary
paranormal is the easier. Cultural
references to current movies and TV shows usually come easier—and make more fun
reading—than those to the Magna Carta or the Forest Charter of 1217 (don’t
ask!) I can write more freely when I
don’t have to worry about the language sounding/being historically authentic. As
for contemporary paranormal world building…well, I feel like I’m cheating
sometimes. Simon, Sex, and the Solstice
Stone was set between Southampton where I live (albeit in the coolest, most
medieval part) and the prehistoric stone circles of Wiltshire, which are about an
hour’s drive away. I set Catching Kit around the parts of south
London where I grew up. But there’s a real love that drives me through the complex
world building of my Greenwood novels. The research is hard work, but if the
result is a totally immersive escapism, then it’s more than worth it.

As for characters—well, the two
characters I connect the most with are Tam in Bound to the Beast, and Simon in Simon, Sex, and the Solstice Stone, so again divided between
historical and contemporary (and the balance might tip, because Cal in my
medieval WIP is totally getting under my skin.)I suppose Simon is the most
like me. We’ve both done the history
student thing. We both have our snappy, bitchy moments, and are far too
desperate to please.

What’s it like to tackle BDSM in a non-contemporary setting?

Oh, fun, fun, fun, but quite
challenging too. In many historical settings, people simply couldn’t say to
each other, “I fancy a bit of fun spanking, how about you?” The shared cultural knowledge of BDSM as an acceptable
practice simply didn’t exist, so it has to come naturally, born out of the story
or the passion between my characters. Fortunately,
plotting elements usually find me excuses for ropes and bondage, and I find it
difficult to write sex without some
power play or hurt/comfort elements, though it keeps me on my toes creatively. What did one use for lube in a
twelfth-century forest, let alone for paddle play or to safely stick up one’s lover’s
arse to make him squirm?

Haha! “I fancy a bit of fun spanking, how about you?” is officially my
new pickup line. What I was blown away by in Bound for the Forest was how rich the world was. When I had to stop
reading, it was like being pulled out of a dream. Do you draw from a lot of
existing mythology when you build your worlds?

Oh yay – thank you! That’s what I aim for, but you never
know if it works :) As for the research, oh yes indeed. I love
it! Before I wrote Bound for the Forest
I immersed myself in books of British and Germanic forest lore (the Wild Men
are more often found in German mythology). I adore discovering ways in which
lore interweaves with real history. The
Greenwood is my fantasy version of the New Forest, about fifteen minute drive
from where I live. Created in 1079 by William the Conqueror as a royal hunting
ground, thirty-six villages and churches were apparently swept away, and brutal
laws were imposed for the next few centuries to prevent commoners’ hunting or
even foraging. The most famous of these laws decreed that commoners could only
hunt in the forest if their dog was small enough to fit through the verdurer’s
stirrup (and if too large, parts of the poor dog could be lopped off! Aw, they
were evil!)

As in all the best narratives, the New Forest gained some
small revenge in 1100, when William II (Rufus) the Conqueror’s heir and then
king, was killed by an arrow during a hunting trip. The Greenwood’s blood
harvest did not stop there. Rufus’s brother and three other relatives
were also killed in the New Forest, allegedly in suitably ritualistic
fashions: Duke Robert was killed by an arrow through his throat, and his
son was hanged from an oak by his hair. Combined with the many tales of
fairies and witches associated with the New Forest, it’s all grimly inspiring!

I also went potty over the
legends of Herne the Hunter and the Wild Hunt before I started writing Bound to the Beast. That one has a
prologue set during the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD, while the main body
of the book is set in Elizabethan times, 1588.
Once again, I loved intersecting the rides of the Wild Hunt with real events,
and pretending that Herne and Tam could change the course of British history. I
also have quite a lot of fun deriving the language of the Greenwood from real
old English Words. Oh, and back to Bound
for the Forest – the form of sacrifice that Scarlet is terrified of (death
three times over by poisoning, cutting, and suffocation) was inspired evidence
of similar practices carried out on real prehistoric bodies. *cackles evilly*

Much of what I research never
makes it into the books, mind. In the original draft of Bound for the Forest, Brien and Arya had a long debate about
Tacitus’s account of the slaughter of the Roman legions by the German tribes in
the Teutoburg forest in 9 A.D. Erm, that got cut as I learned about show not
tell!

Can we talk about the Green Man in Forest?
I’m still having sweet dreams/beautiful nightmares about him. Is he based on
something from existing lore? And if you could bring one mythological person or
creature to life, who/what would it be?

Oh hell, yes please! Green Men (roughly
speaking, half men/half tree creatures, or tree shifters) are an ancient
element of Northern European/Roman pagan mythology. They are associated with various
gods and mythical figures, including Robin Goodfellow (Puck) and even Robin
Hood, whose earliest incarnation are sometimes said to be as a form of Green
Man. Most predominantly though, Green Men are found as grotesques, faces with
foliage for hair, or sometimes vines growing from the mouth, on medieval
buildings and especially churches. Interesting, given their pagan origins! Because
there aren’t that many solid stories associated with Green Men, I decided to
integrate him into my world as a spirit of Holgaerst,
the less evil half of the nature and magic of the Greenwood. Clearly, there were
not enough benign tree shifters in the world who want to have sex with pixies. And,
in case anybody was wondering, he’s not a bloody Ent.

In answer to your question about
who else I’d like to bring to life, I’m going to have to say Robin Hood,
because that’s whose tale I’m reworking at the moment. And the Green Man might just be making a cameo
appearance in his story, Lord of the
Forest, too.

YAY!

I’m thinking about becoming a druid priestess. What special skills do I
need? And more importantly, do I have to have long, wavy hair? Or could I get
by with an Emma Watson-ish pixie cut?

A good deep voice for some
chanting is useful. I’d just sound like I was wailing about my weeks’ shopping.
You also need to be hardy—celebrating the summer solstice at Stonehenge is all
very well, but if you’re going to greet the sun returning at midwinter, on the
21st December, you’re going to freeze your arse off in those white
robes. Talking of which, looking good in white is also a useful skill.

To be honest, in these late days
of earth spirituality, you can bring whatever skills you’ve got to the table.
However, if you want to get down and dirty and into the (alleged) historical
origins of Druidism, you might need strong stomach for all the sacrifice, and
good copper working skills, so you can beat yourself a shiny, sheet-bronze
cauldron to catch all the blood!

The pixie cut is just as good as
the long and wavy! If not, better. I’m a big fan. You can still weave in pretty
flowers, right?

It sounds like I’ve still got some work to do—if I’m okay on the hair, the
chanting voice and sacrifice shouldn’t be a problem, but I get cold very easily.
And white makes me look like the children from The Others.

I’ve talked to writers from both camps: The “I’ll torture my character
endlessly as long as it makes a good story” camp, and the “I cry when I have to
kill off a character” camp. Scarlet goes through some pretty awful stuff in Bound for the Forest. Was it hard to put
him through that?

God, this cover!

Um, no. There are two things I
love to write. Firstly, hot man sex.
Secondly – ANGST, ANGST, ANGST, TORTURE, TORTURE, TORTURE, ANGST. So I’m
not just in the “I’ll torture my
character endlessly as long as it makes a good story” camp. It’s no longer a
camp to me. It’s my home. I’ve built a ruddy great castle there, and you’re not
going to get me out without a long, bloody siege.

At one point when writing Bound for the Forest, I wept a little
for Scarlet, but I was, uh, enjoying myself quite a lot in a weird way. That said, while the Green Man scene (you
know the one I mean) was probably the easiest thing I’ve ever written, the
scene where Scarlet gets ravaged by the Wild Men was one of the hardest. It
wasn’t down to the poor guy’s suffering, though. Describing scary tree wraiths
is really damn hard!

Also, Scarlet gets it easy
compared to Cal in Lord of the Forest
…but that’s another story.

I WANNA KNOW RIGHT NOW!!

*Takes deep breath and smooths skirt*

You are British. I’ve been practicing being British since I was six. Is
it offensive, cute, or something else entirely when Americans try to do British
accents?

It’s cool. I’d love it! It would
make me feel less conspicuous, and I promise I wouldn’t go all annoying and
correct you—unless you wanted it, of course.
I’ve not yet been to the USA (going to hopefully rectify this next year)
and I’m curious of what people will make of my accent. I suppose I sound quite “home
counties” (talking of Emma Watson, I’m not quite that posh, but not so far off
either). When my other half was in Utah with a bunch of other people from his
uni, a guy in a restaurant said he’d thought he’d just walked into an Austin
Powers movie. I’m braced for the worst.

You know to us British accents sound smart. You could throw someone in
front of us with the IQ of sawdust, and as long as he/she had a British accent
we’d nod and be like, “Good point.” Who has the most authoritative British
voice: Dame Helen Mirren, Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellan, Sir Patrick
Stewart, the Queen, or R-Patz?

That’s a tricky one. It’s hard to overlook M or Gandalf, but I’m
going to plump for Sir Patrick because he barked all those orders and managed
not to crash the Enterprise (that much.)

I can never look at him the same way after that episode of Extras. I think you once mentioned once
you’re a former theater geek. Can you tell me more?

Eeeeee! Try to stop me! I loved
theatre at school. I had a bit of a fetish for dressing up as a boy, which I
could indulge nicely as we were an all girl institution. My favorite part was Lysander
in Midsummer Night’s Dream, where I
bagged myself a gorgeous blonde Hermia, who was a head and a half taller than
me. Looking back, I now understand how badly I wanted her to spank
me…aaaaaaaaanyway, moving on. I used to get quite active behind the scenes, and
wrote the musical scores for a couple of productions. When I wasn’t acting, I’d
lead the orchestra or play the piano.
That turned sour on first night of the second production when the lights
went down for the tragic second half of the play. Basically, we’d only ever
practiced in daylight, but this was in the evening…and there I was, sitting
solo at the piano, totally unable to see the keys. I knew the music by heart, but I wasn’t that good! I couldn’t even find middle
C. I learned that night that not only was I no Olivier—I was no Beethoven
either.

Though I studied history, I hadn’t quite got
theatre out of my blood and was involved a bit at uni. When I left, I was still
keen enough to take a job as an theatre agent’s assistant. The only part of this I enjoyed was matching
up the photos of the clients on the agents’ books with the casting call
sheets. The rest of it I hated—it really
wasn’t anything to do with theatre, and I felt so bloody sorry for most of the
actors. They got paid nearly as little
as me!

Ohh, that piano story is great! And yeah, I think any theater position
except for Being Patrick Stewart is grossly underpaid. Speaking of grossly
underpaid jobs…

Rank these Olde Tyme professions from sexiest to least sexy. If you
wish, provide a justification for your choices.

10. Butcher – because I left him out. And because I tried being a vegetarian for a
bit. Then again, he might do nice sausages. Possibly this is an injustice, but
he just ain’t sexy.

2. High Priestess – that’ll be J.A. Rock, right? :)

7. Lumberjack – oh, maybe he should be higher up? He’s probably all
sweaty and muscle bound, but I’m going to justify his low standing because he
chops down trees. And we all know how sexy trees are. Boo for lumberjacks.

6. Village idiot – could be very sexy, but would probably be me.

3. Sock garter model – hell, yeah, bring it on. (Note: my husband
recently confessed he used to have to wear sock garters to school as part of
the regulation uniform. What century
were we living in?)

5. Midwife – midwives are usually very knowledgeable, and that’s
cool and sexy.

1. SEXIEST! Prince of Thieves – I’m writing a Robin Hood book, right?
I have to back those outlaws. Plus, I’ve got an exceedingly naughty WIP about a
highwayman and his whip somewhere on my hard disc…

8. Courier – they might be very cute, but they might also be a
pigeon. I like birds, but I’m not a bird fancier.

9. Hangman – oh, scary! Might be sexy in some sort of role-play
scenario, but… let’s not go there now.

What makes a great romance?

A good romance
should be slightly frustrating, but in the best possible way. Okay, so what do
I mean by that? Basically, when you’re reading a good romance, you’re so
desperate for the two MCs to sort things out and get together that you want to
turn over the pages quicker than you can read. Apart from you don’t want to
turn over those pages and rush it, because you’re loving the story and you want
to spend as much time as possible in these people’s company. So a really good
romance is always a book you can’t put down. You need to read it in a single
session or dash back as soon as possible. It really gets under your skin.

As for the
exact ingredients e.g. setting, level of conflict, that’s all subjective as far
as I’m concerned. Personally, I like a high level of conflict between the
MCS—lovers to enemies is a trope I adore—and an interesting or high concept
setting (preferably fantasy or historical). And, of course, I love ANGST,
ANGST, ANGST, TORTURE, TORTURE, ANGST. But none of this is essential like
the above, just my taste.

Oh my God, I love T&A (Torture & Angst).Thank you so much for being here. I
am so excited to read more of your work!

Thank you
for having me!! I’ve had way too much fun
answering :)

And now *drumroll*…leave a comment on this post to enter for a chance
to win one of Kay’s backlist titles! Elves, beasts, Green Men, history majors…take
your pick! Contest will end at 11:59 p.m. on December 16th.

I referenced that as well, in He Is Worthy, my Roman book. Just the idea that Roman legions could walk into a forest and never be heard of again...AWESOME! I love the spookiness of folklore and myth: the idea that we're co-existing with something much older and darker. And, frankly, legions getting swallowed up by forests inhabited by weird, spooky druid priests feeds right into that. This is why fairy tales tell us to stay out of the woods, right?

And OMG. Patrick Stewart on Extras was HILARIOUS. "And then her clothes, just fall right off". I think it was even better than the Orlando Bloom episode where he spent all his time telling people that Johnny Depp's not that handsome.

LOL. "It's too late--I've seen everything." But for me it's a tie between Kate Winslet's dirty talk ep and Ian McKellan explaining how to act.

I wish we had more ancient lore in the U.S.! I spent my trip to Europe trying to get in touch with my inner ancient darkness. At one point I found a forest that was labeled "Enchanted Forest." That was helpful.

I absolutely need to read He is Worthy NOW (actually, it's going to be my treat when I've kicked chapters 4-6 of Lord of the Forest into shape...so the tendril sex with a willow tree better start being hot not crap pretty damn soon!!) I really adore the darkness and blood of the German forest legends. When we were in Berlin, I was desperate to get out to the Grunwald forest, just to get a glimpse of those Wild Men (okay, I didn't spot any, but next time - *fingers crossed*!)

Thanks for the very interesting Interview! You (both) are new Authors to me so I'm looking forward in getting to know you (both) better. One of the greatest reason for doing the blog hops (or blog exchanges) is that we, as readers get to discover new Writers we had no idea were out there. So, thanks!

I'm a fan of J.A. Rock's interviews too - after visiting this site, I realized I had to up my interview skillz (the circus skills were never going to be any good anyway, so I'll leave the hoop chasing to you, but I also love that book ;))